THURSDAY, 12.30PM
MARKET-leading bottler Amalagamted Beverage Industries and a consortium of small black-owned bottlers have emerged as the lead biddersa for the bottling plant of bankrupt local Pepsi bottler New Age Beverages.
It is believed their offers range between R90-million and R100-million. Chief liquidator Les Cohen said on Wednesday the process of selecting the winning bid will take longer than expected because “certain offers were a bit vague”, but he said a decision will be made next week. He added that the involvement of the Competition Board had complicated matters, as the liquidators’ responsibility was to realise the maximum return for creditors.
The Competition Board, on instruction of the trade and industry department, said it will not allow a market leader to buy the plant. The threat was clearly aimed at ABI, which dominates SA’s non-alcoholic bottled beverage market.
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